19-12-1983

World Cup is Stolen

What is it about the World Cup trophy and theft? No one seems able to keep the darn thing out of the hands of random rapscallions, rogues and Raffles’ type gentleman thieves. Hitler himself wanted to get his hands on it (and famously wanted to host the event in 1942) but the FIFA vice-president at the time hid the Jules Rimet statuette under his bed so the Nazis couldn’t snaffle it. It was stolen prior to the 1966 championship in England. Then famously found by a dog called Pickles. And then, on this day in 1983, it was swiped from the Brazilian Football Confederation for the final time.

The trophy was given to Brazil in perpetuity after they won their third tournament in 1970. That was until a criminal mastermind named Sérgio Peralta (allegedly) engaged a couple of rum coves overpowered a security guard and nicked it. Though there is still confusion over the whole nefarious deed. It is thought the Jules Rimet was melted down into gold bars - but it turns out it wasn’t made of solid gold so this couldn’t actually happen. No matter what happened, it hasn’t shown up since. Send Pickles over there! He’ll find it!